Ahmedabad: Mind your speed or cough up fine

On Monday the Ahmedabad city police commissioner AK Singh issued a notification on speed limits of vehicles in the city. The notification was issued by the commissioner after the city witnessed an increase in road accidents and deaths every day.

In 2019 (till June), a total of 726 road accidents were reported in the city, in which 195 fatal, 220 major and 311 minor accidents were reported. The city saw a rise in road accident deaths in the last three years. A total of 204 people died in road accidents. A total of 320 people died in 2018, 294 in 2017 and 315 in 2016.

This was decided in a meeting between the officials of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) road and building department, Ahmedabad Traffic Police department, National Highways Authority of India(NHAI), Gujarat State Road Development Corporation, Regional Transport officer (RTO) and JP Research that aimed to improve road engineering and make roads safer.

During the meeting, it was revealed that speed was a major factor behind the steep rise in road accidents.

As per the notification, on the city roads, heavy-duty vehicles will have a speed limit of only 40km/hr, four-wheelers will have a speed limit of 60km/hr, three-wheelers will have a speed limit of 40km/hr and two-wheelers will have a speed limit of 50km/hr.

The notification will be implemented from today onwards. Strict action will be taken against violators under sections 183(1),(2), 184 of Motor vehicle Act, 1988 and Indian Penal Code (IPC) 188.